As Ukrainian PM Volodymyr Groysman winds up a three-day visit to Israel, Jews back home try to cope with economic difficulties and the effects of war BY SUE SURKES May 17, 2017 Children at Tikva's kindergarten preparing materials for the Jewish festival of Lag B‘Omer, Odessa, Ukraine, May 12, 2017. (Photo Sue…

"I'm telling you one more time - go to hell, kikes", wrote senior officer affiliated to the intelligence services In the latest of a series of highly public antisemitic statements by prominent figures in Ukraine, a retired Ukrainian general affiliated with the country’s intelligence services this week called for the…

On VE day, Jews and Christians gather near Uman to unveil a monument to 1,000 Jewish children murdered by the Nazis By Sue Surkes May 9, 2017 Ukrainian schoolchildren recite poetry at the unveiling of a memorial to 1,000 Jewish children massacred by the Nazis in a forest in Uman…

For those of you who still don't know, our colleague Judy Patkin is an amazing person. Involved for 40+ years, she transitioned her Boston Action for Soviet Jewry office from advocacy for refuseniks and Prisoners for Zion to assisting needy Jews in Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova. Henry Gerber and I…

On Holocaust Remembrance Day, a display sign was hung in front of a theater in the capital of Ukraine, in anticipation of a new play telling the story of John Demjanjuk, who was convicted of helping to murder Jews in Sobibor; following the harsh criticism, the theater's managers removed the…

March 27, 2017 (JTA) — Nazi symbols were spray-painted on a monument to Holocaust victims in Ukraine that was erected near their mass graves. The letter X was painted on the Star of David emblazoned on the monument near the western city of Ternopil. A swastika was drawn on the…

Efraim Zuroff of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem has said the Lithuanian authorities were “very culpable. A derelict shul in Vilnius (Getty Images) The Lithuanian parliamentary ombudsman, Augustinas Normantas, has refused to open an investigation into a complaint that his country’s Genocide and Resistance Centre presents a revisionist version of…

March 28, 2017 Immigrants arrive in Israel, seeking a better life in Promised Land. Ukrainians immigrants arrive in Israel. (photo credit:OLIVIA FITUSSI) Some 230 Ukrainian immigrants landed in Israel on Tuesday morning, the latest in a steady stream from the country, which has suffered from a crippled economy since the…

Local Lubavitch leader calls it a ‘dark day’ for Jews as emissary in Sochi deemed threat to national security By JTA March 29, 2017 Ari Edelkopf and wife Chana in 2009 in Sochi, Russia. (Courtesy of Federation of Jewish Communities) A Russian appeals court affirmed an expulsion order issued against…

By Cnaan LiphshizMarch 21, 2017 Bronia Feldman visiting the synagogue of Bershad, Ukraine, March 9, 2017. (Cnaan Liphshiz) BERSHAD, Ukraine (JTA) — At first glance, this drab town 160 miles south of Kiev seems nearly identical to the settlements that dot the poverty-stricken district of Vinnitsa. Shrouded in a seemingly permanent cloud…